Designing the Modern Radio Broadcast Control Room / Studio
A typical control room and studio would have board op and guest microphones, and local media playback devices such as Shortcuts, Instant Replays, CD players and CD-R players and recorders, perhaps a telephone system (hybrid or codec) and last but not least, a console with a mixing engine to manage the system.
Typical Equipment list:
- Board Operator Microphone
- Host and Guest Microphones
- Digital Audio Delivery (Multi-channel)
- CD players and CD-R player/recorders
- DAT machines
- Telephone Hybrid or Codec (ISDN)
- Instant Replay and/or Shortcut (tm by 360 systems)
- Intercom Panel (for communication within the facility or to remote locations)
- I/O bulkhead for guests equipment
With this new digital network paradigm all of the media installed into the control room’s furniture equipment bay can connect directly into the RIO mixing engine using short run cabling to the co-located RIO mixing engine. The RIO mixing engine, requiring only 2 RU of space, generates no ambient noise, contains no cooling fans and is designed to install into the control rooms equipment bay. Essentially all devices that have audio signals in and out connect appropriately to the RIO mixing engine. System integration is accomplished using the Network Configuration Software. Utilizing a simple GUI interface software package with pull down menus and option boxes, the entire system is configured with mouse click selections. Parameters such as source names, program and output
busses, mix minus outputs (generated automatically) are defined.
Typical Control Room
The following block diagram shows schematically a control room and studio configuration using the Sierra Automated Systems & Eng. Corp RIO mixing engine and Rubicon SL Console. The RIO mixing engine contains all of the necessary DSP and mixing capabilities required for radio broadcast operations. All muting, speaker and headphone level controls are built in and are a function of the DSP engine. No wiring to external muting devices or discrete switches and volume controls are required. The block diagram shows host and guest position on/ off / cough switches in a panel that connects to the system with a simple CAT 5 cable and can be mounted in a wood turret enclosure, or mounted into a cut out of the furntinure table top. No wiring of discrete components are no longer needed.
Building the Rack Room.
As we continue to build the facility, an SAS 32KD may be installed in the TOC or rack room for all of the centrally located devices as shown. This will allow all devices to be shared to any of the control rooms on the network. Each of the control room studio RIO mixing engines connects using a standard CAT 5 cable to the frame in a hub type fashion and becomes a mixing block of 32 inputs and 32 outputs within the larger system. The digital network with its inherent ability to provide full unlimited map and mix of any source to any destination, the Rubicon control room can dial up and utilize any of the equipment in the central rack, and, from other Rubicon control rooms. Integration of the system is now accomplished using a GUI software program with pull down menus and mouse click selections. As shown below, program audio can be fed to the process, then fed to the delay unit for live programming. This is accomplished using a simple macro to map the appropriate output to the processor, map the processor input is to the output feeding the delay, and map the source of the delay to the output feeding the STL. A second macro can be used to “bypass” the processing and/or the delay by mapping the program output directly to the STL if pre processed syndicated audio program is to be broadcast. "Dynamic Integration" is inherent with the simple programming of a macro. Intercom functionality is accomplished within the digital network simply by mapping the appropriate microphone to the destination requiring communication. From the diagrams, microphones are already connected to the network. And, speaker monitors, cue speakers and headphones are also connected to the network. No additional wiring is required for intercommunication and IFB from these facilities. Venues that do not have a microphone and speakers, a variety of full function intercom panels with microphone and speaker functions built in can be installed and by simply connecting an input and an output from the digital network.
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Putting the Pieces Together.
As more Rubicon control rooms are added, simple CAT 5 cabling is all that is required to allow all control rooms access to anything on the network. In the TOC, a pool of centrally located ISDN codec modules connected to the system for remote broadcasts can easily be dialed up in any of the control rooms. SAS has an exclusive Mix Minus Dynamic Allocation function that allows the control room to dial up the feed and “hold” the backhaul mix minus going to the remote. Now, any other control room may dial up the remote feed for monitoring, but will not feed its mix minus to the codec unless an override from a button is issued. An indication in the Rubicon console module display will show the name of the control room that has the codec “held”. This holding mechanism provides a means to prevent an inadvertent interruption of the mix minus feed to a remote broadcast. The system can also be programmed to treat the group of codecs as a pool of “remote resources”. When a control room requires a remote feed for a broadcast, the system will allocate the next available ISDN codec from the pool and the mix minus is “held” to that control room. There is no need for manually looking up and selecting an available codec. The system will automatically and dynamically assign the next available codec that is not “held” to any other control room.
Typical Radio Broadcast Facility
Simple and elegant design and installation is realized with the digital audio network. Some key points in keeping it clean and simple. High capacity audio I/O network interface chassis greatly reduces the need for “internal equipment interconnects”. Co-located acquisition (RIO mixing engine) in the equipment bay of the control room furniture allows for short run cabling to local media devices. And, simple GUI programming with pull down menus and mouse click options provides for easy integration and “Dynamic Integration” when changes to the configured system is required.
